


Span Both Ways Forever

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Babies, Background Hermione/Luna/Fred, Fake Baby Death, Fake Character Death, Family, Gen, Percy Weasley POV, Ritual Magic, Setup for Time Travel, Setup for a Fix-It, Sibling Love, Time Travel, referenced character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29079984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: On the other side of the door, Ginny was crying. Percy knew it; Charlie knew it; even Bill knew it. The three of them exchanged glances, and Bill shrugged."It's got to be the four of us," he said. "It would have been better with all seven of us or with four of us boys or even with just the twins, but four siblings will work."Percy tried to think of another Magical family that had four children who loved each other enough to manage the trick. He shook his head. "It's not the spell," he said. "You--""You shouldn't have mentioned Harry," Charlie said. "Not when we've all four been drinking. Not after the day, the week, the decade, we've had."
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Span Both Ways Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosestone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosestone/gifts).



> The baby is Percy's with a mother who is an OC who is Lady Not Appearing In This Fic but also Lady Not Tragically Dead. The baby will be fine.
> 
> I'm not specifying the divergence point or exactly what happened to the characters who're dead in the now. I'm also not giving a lot of details about what life is like under Voldemort. I thought we could all just agree that there's something truly terrible offstage.
> 
> I expected to have at least half this story set after the time travel, but the characters kept insisting that they needed to talk to each other and to manage a lot of logistical details. I don't regret any of those scenes; they're all important.
> 
> Finally, I am aware that the Latin is bad. I went for sounding canon appropriate over accuracy and twisted and smashed words together without being too fussed about precise meaning or grammatical forms.

On the other side of the door, Ginny was crying. Percy knew it; Charlie knew it; even Bill knew it. The three of them exchanged glances, and Bill shrugged.

"It's got to be the four of us," he said. "It would have been better with all seven of us or with four of us boys or even with just the twins, but four siblings will work."

Percy tried to think of another Magical family that had four children who loved each other enough to manage the trick. He shook his head. "It's not the spell," he said. "You--"

"You shouldn't have mentioned Harry," Charlie said. "Not when we've all four been drinking. Not after the day, the week, the decade, we've had."

Percy had been drinking tea. He'd known that alcohol would tip him into recklessness. He'd have thrown his life away by murdering his wife or-- worse-- by attacking the Dark Lord directly. He considered the bowl of fruit on the table. After a moment, he reached out and lifted an apple. He used a spell to peel it, just sat and watched the unevenly red skin fall in curls on the table.

"I'm not even supposed to mourn," Percy said as he held the naked apple and stared at its white flesh. "And it's not like this will save Patty." He took a bite of the apple.

Without orders from the Dark Lord, Percy would never have considered marrying Meredith McConnall. They'd loathed each other at Hogwarts, and marriage hadn't improved their regard for each other. No version of Percy would ever hold his daughter-- Meredith's daughter-- again.

A younger Bill, even in a much altered timeline, might still meet Fleur. Probably would even. Their children might change a bit, but they also might not.

Percy wouldn't be doing this if the Dark Lord hadn't murdered his baby.

Both Bill and Charlie were staring at him.

Percy met their eyes in turn. "I'll still do it," he told them. "I'm just doing it to make the bastards hurt."

Charlie looked away.

Bill nodded. "You go with Ginny, then. Charlie and I will anchor on this end. It's probably even better since you're closer in age to Ginny than I am." He wobbled his hand back and forth. "We could make other two and two splits balance. Well, maybe not Charlie and Ginny together." He blinked as if he was trying to make his vision clear.

Percy realized that he hadn't been paying attention to how much Bill had been drinking. Charlie could drink all of them under the table, but Bill was surprisingly lightweight when it came to holding alcohol. "Bill," he said gently, "it was never going to be you going back with Ginny, and all four of us understood why the numbers don't work with Charlie and Ginny. You're not the only one who took arithmancy." He reached for the bottle and splashed whiskey into his cup.

Nobody'd ever doubted that Ginny would go back in time. She'd shatter if they left her in the future and forced her to remember both timelines without any hope of altering either.

She also knew both Harry Potter and the Dark Lord in ways that none of the rest of them did.

"I looked for the twins." Charlie still wasn't looking at Percy. "I have been since Bill told me about the spell. They were always more ruthless than the rest of us." He held out his hand. "Give me your wand, Percy. You deserve a chance to get shit-faced. I won't let you do anything suicidal tonight."

If Charlie had found the twins, if the spell could have worked with two or even three, none of them would have told Percy what they were planning. Not because they didn't trust him but because they wouldn't have wanted him to have to choose between his child and what had to be done.

"How long before we're ready?" Percy asked. He gripped his wand hard and hoped that the rest of tonight was optional. Better it were quickly done.

"New moon," Charlie said after a glance at Bill. "For the possibilities. The Burrow will work well enough since there have been generations of our family here."

Percy heard the unspoken 'also for the possibilities.' He considered that then forced his fingers to relax so that he could give Charlie his wand. "I'd rather not spend the next three weeks sober."

Charlie nodded and took Percy's wand. "I already hid the floo powder. You won't be going anywhere."

Bill said, "You'll have to face it eventually."

Charlie glared at Bill. "Not tonight. We haven't given him three breaths of space for mourning."

______________

Ten days later, Percy had given up on drinking. It didn't help worth a damn, and not having his wand had meant he'd been defenceless against the Ministry obliviator who'd come looking for him on the fourth day.

Charlie had stunned the woman from behind and kept her unconscious until he could get Percy sober enough to ask him whether or not he wanted to forget.

Percy's response had been disjointed but sufficiently laced with angry profanity that Charlie understood the no. Percy hadn't asked, later, what Charlie had done with the woman.

Neither of them told Bill or Ginny.

Eventually, very soon, it wouldn't have happened at all. Percy and Charlie would remember, but the woman's life would have had at least two decades to take her somewhere else.

At midnight on that tenth day, Ginny and Percy were together in the Burrow, sitting at the kitchen table and trying to make contingency plans.

Ginny made a frustrated sound as she tapped the table with her right index finger. "Not knowing when we'll be makes it harder."

Percy shrugged. He didn't see a way around that part since it depended on the synergy of personal variables they didn't have a way to measure. Percy's anger might carry them further back than intended. Ginny's love for their mother might snag them on some particular date. Bill's fear for his children, Charlie's general dislike of humans, any of that might factor in.

Percy thought that the bigger problem was that none of the Weasleys knew anything at all about the Muggle world. He suspected that they would need the option of hiding there; he also suspected that Charlie was assuming that Ginny and Percy would take a tent into the past and live in that.

Charlie had tended dragons too long; his ideas about acceptable living conditions were cracked.

Someone knocked on the door.

Ginny was faster to respond than Percy. She whisked all of their research into storage with a flick of her wand. Then she cast half a dozen tiny household charms while Percy pushed back his chair and headed for the door.

The kitchen was still a mess, but it now looked like Ginny had tried desperately to make it company clean during the last thirty seconds. That she'd be ashamed of dust, mold, and dirty dishes made considerably more sense than that she and her least beloved brother were planning regime change by time travel.

Percy cracked the door open and found himself looking at Fred and two other, less instantly recognizable people.

"Let us in," Fred said. "We can't afford to be seen here."

Percy opened the door a little wider and stepped back. He didn't even glance at Ginny.

If the newcomer weren't really Fred, Ginny wouldn't hesitate to murder him.

Fred-- or the person who looked like him-- stepped inside. "I don't think we ever apologized to you for the tomb in Egypt," he said. "In our defence, neither of us knew Mum had your wand."

Percy stared at his brother for a moment then engulfed him in a hug.

Ginny sniffed disapprovingly. " _I_ had Percy's wand. My old wand hated me that summer. Charlie's was the only one I didn't borrow, and that was because I wasn't ever close enough."

Percy nodded because he remembered. He'd eventually begged Bill to buy their sister a new wand because the wand Ginny had gotten from Olivander's was loyal to the spirit that had possessed her.

Fred sagged a little as he put his arms around Percy. "I really am sorry," he said softly.

Percy understood that his brother was meant that to cover more than just Egypt. "I'm sorry, too."

"We were in Australia," said one of the people behind Fred. "Hermione and I were anyway."

Percy thought he recognized the voice, but he couldn't identify it, not until the person pulled back her hood to reveal her face. "Luna," he said. He tried to put welcome into his voice. "It's been a while." He wasn't sure he'd even seen her at any point after he left Hogwarts. He hadn't even thought of her in years.

She smiled at him and then at Ginny. "I think we have someone you'll want to see more than us."

The third figure was still hooded. For the first time, Percy realized that they were holding a small bundle.

A suspiciously shaped bundle.

"They meant to wait longer." Hermione sounded disapproving. "As if you didn't need us to help plan."

Percy recognized Hermione's voice. He thought he'd have recognized her voice even if Luna hadn't mentioned her name.

Fred moved aside as Hermione walked toward Percy. "I was afraid you might give something away."

Percy realized that this was what Fred had really been apologizing about. He recognized his daughter's weight as Hermione placed Patty in his arms. His baby was still, but she was breathing. He pressed his nose against her forehead and thought that she smelled right.

He lost some time then because he couldn't give his attention to anything but the wonder that was Patty. He'd have stayed there for hours if Ginny hadn't hurled a pitcher at Fred, who ducked and let it shatter against the wall behind him.

Patty didn't twitch in response to the crash.

Percy'd already known that they had to have drugged her. He'd simply put it aside as less important than the fact that she was alive. "I should tell Meredith," he said into the silence that followed the breaking crockery. "She cried, too."

Luna came over and put a hand on Percy's shoulder. "She let them obliviate her."

"And in another ten days, it won't matter," Hermione said.

Percy opened his mouth to say that there wasn't going to be any going back in time nonsense, but he supposed that, given Fred, the others could do it without him.

"You'll take her with you," Fred said. "I can balance her. With me here and George already in the past, there's enough for her, too."

Percy's brain ground to a stop. He stared at them. "George--?" He turned to look fully at Ginny, hoping she could explain.

Ginny didn't usually look much like their mother, but right then, she was every inch Molly Weasley in a righteous fury. "They let you mourn for nearly _three weeks_." She pointed a finger at each of their visitors in turn.

Only Fred looked ashamed.

Percy considered everything. "She's _alive_ ," he told Ginny. "That matters more than me knowing she is." He cleared his throat and looked at Hermione. "Can you wake her? Sound from in here doesn't go out, so it shouldn't matter if she cries."

Hermione's face softened. "Of course." She turned to Luna and nodded.

Percy should have remembered that Hermione didn't have a wand any more. "We have some used wands," he told her as he held his daughter out toward Luna. "I've been collecting them for years rather than let them be broken. Maybe one will be close enough."

Hermione's fingers twitched. "I-- I don't _need_ one. Except--" There was naked longing on her face.

Luna tapped her wand on Patty's head and murmured something.

Patty yawned then wriggled.

"Better to get one now," Luna said. "You know you'll want one, eventually, and buying one whenever you end up will leave a trail."

"We should each have more than one," Hermione said.

Ginny said, "We can't carry much. We'll need money more."

Percy had missed quite a lot. "Hermione's coming?" He turned to look at Hermione. "How are you coming?"

Hermione shook her head. "The numbers work," she said softly.

"We balance each other," Luna said. "I'm her anchor. We're outsiders in different directions, and she can help you more than I can. In the past, I mean."

Fred said, "George has money. He ended up too far back for most things, but there's money waiting and a house. You and Ginny will be his grandchildren. Probably."

"Hermione told him how to invest what he took back with him," Luna said. "Not Betamax."

Hermione snickered. "You would remember that."

"It was a good book," Luna said. "You were right."

Patty started making sounds that Percy recognized as hunger. They had less than ten minutes before full on wailing.

He wondered if she needed her nappy changed. He didn't have supplies for that, not here, but he supposed Mum wouldn't mind him using a towel or three for that. 

He could use all of them. Once he and Ginny left, there'd be no one at the Burrow to use towels. Not at this version of Burrow, anyway.

And Mum still wouldn't mind. She'd scold him for not being prepared, but she'd have adored Patty.

Percy stood and started looking for something Patty could safely eat. "If George went back, why do we need to?"

Fred gave Percy a look that Percy didn't know how to interpret. "He ended up too far back. He could have changed a lot of things, but it wasn't just whether or not we'd be born but whether Mum and Dad would be." Fred spoke carefully as if each word might explode. "He and I decided that he had to leave the country."

Percy realized that this was what uncertainty looked like on Fred's face. Percy was going to have to remember that for when he met George again. "You tried. Thank you for that."

"We have formula for her," Hermione said. "For Patty. I thought you probably wouldn't, and buying Muggle was... We thought it was less likely to be noticed." She pulled a wide blue cylinder out of her bag.

And any Weasley buying necessities for a baby would draw attention.

"The instructions are on the tin," Luna said. "Very simple. Measure and add water."

"You'll need to warm it a little," Hermione added, "to about body temperature."

"Too much power for the trip back?" Bill didn't seem all that interested in the ease of preparing food for his niece.

"Yeah," Fred said. "We miscalculated. By a lot."

Ginny made a sound of understanding. "And you two always go for too much and refine from there. Because, if you fail, you don't know if the concept's even sound."

"You know us so well." Fred flicked a finger at Ginny's forehead.

She dodged with a laugh, a real one.

Percy couldn't remember the last time he'd heard Ginny laugh like that. Probably Hogwarts.

____

Hermione's bag also contained extra food. "I've got everything in here," she said, patting it as she spoke. "I know you must have gathered supplies, but we've been working on it, too."

"Hermione knows all the Muggle tricks," Luna commented as she scrambled eggs. "It's a lot easier to travel that way right now. Nobody looks twice. We put our wands in Hermione's bag."

Fred looked up from the papers he and Bill had been studying. "It was cramped," he said, "and someone threw up. It took hours in the air, just sitting there with no idea what was outside. We couldn't even sleep."

"Perils of flying coach," Hermione told him. "Wizards don't use airplanes. Still. There aren't as many flights now as there were, but boats and trains are watched more closely."

Percy recognized Hermione about to launch into lecture mode and thought about leaving the room. He could always use Patty as an excuse; she was napping on his shoulder, and he'd decided not to put her down to sleep.

Part of him was still terrified that she'd vanish if he let go of her.

"Are you sure about these numbers, Fred?" There was a slight reprimand in Bill's voice, probably for Fred having allowed himself to be distracted. "Completely sure?"

Hermione sniffed. "I'm sure, and Luna's sure. It's not just Fred's work."

"Fred keeps all his documentation in his head," Luna said. "Very convenient for travel but not so great for other people. No indexing."

The expression on Fred's face was, once again, not one Percy recognized. At least, he'd never seen it on either of the twins before. Percy knew it from how Ron looked when Ginny and Hermione were both coming at him for something Ron knew he'd botched.

Percy'd only seen the look a few times, but he remembered it. He suspected that he and Charlie had both looked that way when dealing with Fred and George being excessively themselves.

"Hermione for the rigor," Luna said. "Fred for the imagination." She smiled as she dumped the eggs onto a platter. "Me for the pixie dust."

Hermione gave Luna a smile that was almost indulgent. "Luna means that she adds the last minute changes to account for unexpected variables."

"My way's more fun," Luna said.

Charlie pulled plates out of the cupboard. "I let Gina know we'll be coming a few days early. I think it will be easier that way." He turned and put the stack of plates on the table. "We'll seal the Burrow when we go, just in case."

"They'll look for us," Ginny said. It wasn't quite an objection, more of a challenge for Charlie to explain. "The dragon preserves are... Well, that's the first place I'd check."

"I don't think they will," Charlie said. "At least, not soon. Nodens isn't only a dragon sanctuary. It's got more magic than the Forbidden Forest, enough to need searching on foot."

Percy hadn't realized that they were going to Nodens. He'd missed that before. He gave Bill a sharp look but didn't ask.

Either Bill and Charlie had a plan for finding their way home, after, or they didn't expect it to matter. There were a lot of details about the anchoring side of the spell that didn't fully make sense.

Luna smiled at Percy. She came close and bent down to touch Patty's face. "I always know the way home," she told him quietly. "That's what pixie dust does."

Percy made himself smile back.

"It'll be easier to hide four extra people there," Charlie said. "Even if someone finds our campsite, after, it won't be obvious how many of us there were. Also--" He looked sideways at Bill. "More hands will make quicker work of the setting up, and more eyes checking for errors makes finding any more likely."

Bill tugged on his earring. After a moment, he sighed. "None of the work I've done on the circle so far will be usable with this group, and... Doing it all on site, instead of laying it out here and transporting it, will make the ritual more stable." Bill looked at Percy and at Patty.

Percy thought he heard the words Bill wasn't saying about the real reason they had stayed at the Burrow.

It was the same reason Bill, Charlie, and Ginny all had tracking spells on Percy.

Percy liked to think that there wasn't any chance he'd have abandoned Ginny to travel through time alone, but he understood the fear. The wilderness had more opportunities for a fraction of a second of carelessness to-- to cause problems.

Hermione made a face. "I hate camping. Insects. Weather. Rodents. _Nature_. Things I forgot to pack." She sounded more upset than the prospect of discomfort warranted.

"Hermione--" Fred began.

Percy heard pain in his brother's voice. Percy closed his eyes because he didn't want to see the pain, too.

"It won't be the same sort of hard. It never is," Luna said. "I think the eggs are quite cold," she added. "Entirely ready to eat."

Percy was a little surprised when Hermione accepted the distraction and offered exactly the right charm for warming the eggs without making them rubbery.

____

They planned to travel to Nodens by portkey. They had two portkeys for getting back to the mainland, one for the people who would be staying in the now and one for the group going into the past.

"I'm not sure it will work," Bill admitted to Percy. "I'm not sure anything magical you take back will still work. I wasn't before, and Fred says George had trouble. Fred and Luna say they have a way around it this time, but I don't understand their arithmancy." He hesitated then added, "I don't think _Hermione_ understands it, either. She trusts them, but she keeps not looking directly at those spells when we're running the numbers."

Which, Percy supposed, might mean she trusted enough to gamble or might mean that Fred or Luna had put some sort of charm on those bits to keep Hermione from fretting about things that couldn't be helped. Maybe it was a little of both; Hermione was likely to have spotted that kind of visual displacement, so maybe she was willing to be diverted from the things that she didn't have time to change. Hermione's doubts, after all, might destroy all chance of Fred and Luna's equations functioning.

Percy considered the question without reaching any solid conclusion. "If it doesn't," He told Bill at last, "there's always George. I'm sure one of us can manage a Patronus. I'll pack Patty's things in a non-magical bag. The rest of us can manage as long as we keep warm."

"Percy, I can't guarantee you'll have working _wands_." Bill sounded pained by having to make the admission. "We probably wouldn't use Nodens. Not without George. Charlie and Ginny thought it was worth the risk even before, but..." Bill shrugged.

Percy suspected that Ginny had assumed that, in the worst case, she'd be able to steal a wand and a broom from one of the dragon keepers. He supposed that would still be an option and was surprised at how little the idea bothered him. "If our magic doesn't carry over," he told Bill, "the keepers are going to notice us. I don't suppose that being arrested as poachers will be pleasant." He shrugged. "We'll manage."

Bill stared at Percy for several seconds before he started to laugh. "I suppose you will." He clapped a hand on Percy's shoulder.

Percy shook his head and went to find Hermione. He didn't want to duplicate effort, and he knew that she'd have a much better idea how Muggles managed in the Hebrides than he did.

Hermione already had Muggle camping gear. She spread it out across the floor of Ginny's room to show him what she'd brought. "There are stores that specialize in this sort of thing," she said. "I'm switching out a few things because I bought the packs in Melbourne. I'm not nearly as worried about snakebite and heat stroke during this trip."

Percy didn't like the look of it; there were too many odd items that he would have no idea how to use, and the packs looked heavy. He couldn't imagine that people really hiked while carrying that much weight, but Hermione assured him that people did.

"You'll have Patty, so I won't ask you to take a full pack," Hermione said. "Ginny's fit enough, though, and I can manage. It's all packed efficiently." Hermione sat back on her heels and looked directly at Percy. "There are a few Muggle things I'll have you carry. Some--" She pressed her lips together for a long moment. "--call them Muggle potions. Just in case we need someone unconscious. Wizards don't expect--" She stopped and shook her head. "It's not Muggle legal or entirely _safe_ , but it's better than bashing people's heads in." 

"Nothing we're planning is entirely safe or entirely legal," Percy said. "It doesn't matter."

Hermione studied him for several seconds then nodded. "Ginny and I will take most of the risks."

Percy nodded. He had Patty, and there wasn't a lot he could do better than both Hermione and Ginny. "But not all of them." That was true, too, because there were things he'd be needed for. "Once Patty knows you both, as long as one of us is with her, it'll be fine. I can carry off the arrogant pureblood better than you can and in different company than Ginny can."

Percy wasn't entirely sure that Ginny could pull off the arrogant pureblood at all. Her temper was too likely to get the better of her even now.

Hermione looked away. "You know the Ministry," she admitted.

"I'm a good judge of which asses to kiss." Percy let the full weight of his bitterness settle into the words. "I will, too." His throat felt dry as he went on. "You didn't have to rescue my daughter. I know that. Taking a baby along will... It will make a lot of things harder."

Hermione shook her head. "It wasn't my call."

"Of course, it was." Percy wished she wouldn't insult his intelligence. He'd been paying attention to more than his daughter. "Fred's plan. Luna's power. Your call. If you'd said no, they'd have accepted it. I'd never have known. Ginny would never have known."

"You'd have guessed." Hermione still wasn't looking at him. "Or Ginny would. And--" She took a deep breath. When she spoke, it sounded ragged. "How we do it matters as much as what we do. I didn't learn that soon enough. Harry and Ron... Neither of them had time to learn."

Percy heard the part she didn't say. He wasn't completely sure that he agreed.

He didn't think that lack of compassion had anything to do with their deaths, not any more than a lack of courage had. He supposed that thinking that might be easier for Hermione than thinking that it had all been bad luck.

But Percy had learned some things, too, so he didn't say any of that. "They'll have us this time," he promised instead.

____

Percy had somehow thought that Nodens would have trees. Now that they were there, now that he really thought about it, he remembered enough herbology to know that none of the Hebrides had much in the way of trees. Nodens had some copses of small, gnarled tree-like things that were found nowhere else in the world, but Charlie had told them that they couldn't camp near any of those.

"The trees are worth more than the dragons," he said with complete seriousness. "And the dragons protect those trees. I can't cast a spell that will hide us from a dragon if we're in shouting distance of one of those."

"They wouldn't stop the wind anyway," Ginny said. "We'll want hills for that."

"A cave," Luna said, pointing west. "That way."

Percy didn't see anything obvious in that direction, but Fred nodded.

"She's usually right," Fred said. He started walking.

"I should have come ahead and picked a place." Charlie sounded oddly ashamed. "It would have been safer. I should have thought."

"No." Percy could at least put that bit of self-blame to bed. "That would have meant two more portkeys, more people knowing we were coming here, and leaving me at home alone." He managed not to choke on the word 'home,' but it was a near thing as he realized that the Burrow would never be his home again.

He might visit, some day, but he wouldn't be Percy Weasley then. He wouldn't even be a distant relative. He wondered if Ginny had thought about that.

She probably had, but her experiences with the diary and the basilisk had left hard places in her soul that none of the rest of them could equal. She regretted things lost, but she never confused things lost with people lost.

She had a clarity and ruthlessness that Percy envied. He would always be better with finicky magics, with details, and complicated procedures, but he feared that he'd hesitate at some crucial juncture.

"It can't be worse," Bill said quietly. He nudged Percy's arm with his elbow. "Whatever you're thinking, it can't be."

Percy was quite sure that no one else could hear Bill's words. Percy forced a smile and held Patty a little tighter. He considered arguing because Bill was wrong, but it occurred to him that Bill needed to believe it. 

Bill's active role would end when Percy, Patty, Ginny, and Hermione traveled back through time. Bill had to trust them and to hold tight to the spell for as long as he could.

"We won't let you down," Percy promised.

"You won't let yourselves down, either." Bill sounded certain. "Change whatever you need to change. We'll manage."

"I trust you," Percy said. "You and Charlie and Fred and even Luna." He considered that. "Maybe especially Luna. She'll be quicksilver and help you all balance."

"Fred has managed. He's still sane." Bill sounded a bit in awe. "It's... promising."

Percy laughed then almost turned an ankle. 

Bill caught Percy's arm and kept him from falling. "Careful."

"I can't quite see where my feet are going," Percy admitted. "I'm not used to carrying so much." All he was carrying was his daughter, but she was large enough to make the rough ground more difficult.

Luna's cave wasn't deep enough for the whole tent, but there was a flat space in front of it that Charlie said would do. "If we pitch it with the opening toward the cave, we'll have shelter as we go in and out, and it will be easier to make the cave look shallower in order to hide... things... if we have visitors. I don't expect we will because Gina knows we're mourning, but..." He shrugged.

Hermione nodded firmly. "I can work with that. The dragons make detection spells harder here, and I'm very good at concealment."

Luna smiled. "We have polyjuice, but that wouldn't help with there being too many of us."

And polyjuice wouldn't be safe for a baby. Percy couldn't think of any lie they could tell that would explain a baby at the campsite.

No, that wasn't true. Fred could have joined them and brought a baby. It would be unlikely, but Charlie's friends and colleagues wouldn't ask questions. The answers were too likely to be dangerous.

"Use polyjuice to be me, Luna, when you leave here after," Ginny said. "Fred can pass for Percy without, at least from a distance."

"None of them have met me," Percy said. He cleared his throat. "Less risk to Charlie's friends if four Weasleys leave afterward." He paced back and forth across the ground where Charlie said the tent would go; Patty was making unhappy noises. "Can we get the tent up fast? I'd rather not do a nappy change on the ground."

____

Bill disliked the space Charlie had thought would work for the time travel spell. "It feels wrong," he said.

Charlie threw up his hands. "It's exactly what you said you wanted!"

Percy agreed with Charlie, so he looked at Ginny.

She shrugged and looked at Hermione.

Hermione raised her eyebrows and turned to Luna.

"Warren of hibernating rock sprites," Luna said. "Too much magic there will wake them."

Percy had never heard of rock sprites, but he also hadn't taken Care of Magical Creatures.

"Okay." Hermione sounded like she understood Luna's point. "It's not as if there aren't a lot of big flat spots."

Charlie made a sound of frustration that made Percy suspect that Charlie had never heard of rock sprites either, and Charlie had taken Care of Magic Creatures. Charlie had got an O on his NEWT for it.

"Rock sprites are endangered," Luna said. "Even more than dragons because you need a dozen before you get fission."

If Charlie called bullshit on the rock sprites, Percy was going to have to back him up.

On the other hand, there was a lot of flat, open space as long as they were willing to risk the gorse.

"Wait," Percy said. "That was the perfect place when there were _four_ of us, right? We'd need a different place anyway."

Ginny started laughing. There was a bitterness in it that Percy hated, but the amusement sounded genuine enough. "I give Charlie a pass on that one, but really?" She looked at everyone else in turn. "None of you thought of it?"

Fred actually looked embarrassed, but he didn't try to shift the blame. "I should have thought," he admitted.

"No," Bill said. "You were always planning on eight of us. Why would it occur to you?"

"Because we knew--" Fred began.

"We always thought we'd jump in at the last second," Luna said. "It was going to be us changing what you'd already made because there wouldn't be time for anything else."

"What size of space do you need?" Ginny asked. "I brought my broom, and flying would be-- You're all too much right now."

Percy understood what she meant. They had too many people in too little space. "Luna," he said, "do you think you could manage Patty when she wakes? Charlie and I ought to make sure we've got solid dragon repelling charms."

"Why ask Luna?" Hermione sounded a little offended.

Percy took a deep breath and stomped hard on the part of himself that wanted to take offense in return. He was going to have to work with Hermione and her opinions. "Because," he said, "she's the one who doesn't do any of the writing. Any of you _could_ feed and change Patty, but Luna can do it without interrupting her work quite as much."

Hermione blinked at him.

Percy shrugged. 

"Pixie dust doesn't take nearly as much writing as arithmancy does," Luna said. 

As far as Percy had been able to figure out 'pixie dust' was a euphemism for making sure that Fred and Hermione didn't start screaming at each other over things that didn't matter. Luna was brilliant and came at things from angles that turned ideas inside out and shook them, but as far the three of them went, she was the foundation.

Moving to the tent had made it impossible for any of them to deny that Fred, Hermione, and Luna were... involved. The rest of the Weasleys never asked and never discussed it, but there had been enough looks exchanged between siblings that Percy was sure they'd all seen it and admitted what they were seeing.

None of them heard anything, but they all knew it was silencing charms rather than any lack of sounds on the other side of the curtain.

As Percy and Charlie walked the perimeter of their campsite, Percy tried not to think about what it meant that Hermione was leaving Fred and Luna behind.

He both wished they'd hidden it better so that he wouldn't have to grieve for their loss and hoped that they had some joy in each other during the last few days they had.

____

Ginny offered three possible sites.

Bill and Hermione bickered about which was better. This one was closer. That one was flatter. The last had hills around it that would make hiding what they were doing easier.

But the flat one was all over gorse, and the closest had dragon dung, and the one with hills was farther from their tent than the quidditch pitch had been from the Forbidden Forest.

Then Charlie pointed out that they could simply move aside the turf on the flattest site. "We can keep moving it and putting it back. That'll let us lay everything out well in advance without risking that someone will see through our notice-me-not charms when we're not there to do something about it."

Percy took the thoughtful silence in response to Charlie's point to mean that they'd all been worried about how long it would take to lay the circle and that they'd all been avoiding bringing it up. "Easier to cover it all up after, too," Percy said. "Better not to leave evidence that anything happened at all. I'd rather not be followed, and--"

And killing Bill, Charlie, Fred, and Luna would sever the connection that would let them change the past. The time travelers wouldn't die of it, but once their anchors were gone, their changes in the past would create a split, a divergence, rather than an alteration rippling forward.

The fact that Fred seemed to be as sane as he'd ever been gave Percy hope that living with memories of multiple and constantly changing pasts was survivable.

Bill had mentioned that Percy and Ginny might need to change as much as they could as early as they could, and Percy, now that he had time to think about it, was almost certain that Bill hadn't been sure how long he and Charlie could bear the strain.

It made sense of sending Percy back at all. When Bill had suggested the plan, Percy had been too shattered to have been able to anchor anything. Now, well, Percy had looked at the equations and the potential balances and considered very carefully.

Both Bill and Charlie had skills that he didn't. Either of them would be willing to take Patty along and raise her. Also, Ginny liked both of them better than she did Percy.

Their family relationship had mellowed, but Ginny never forgot the times when Percy had been an ass about her being young or her potentially embarrassing him or how adhering to the rules was the surest way to stay safe and to get ahead.

She also never forgot the times when he'd failed her and the rest of the family completely by paying attention to the wrong things, by valuing status and security and routine over doing right when 'doing right' meant taking risks.

Percy probably shouldn't have asked the Hat for Gryffindor. He might have made a good Ravenclaw. Even Hufflepuff might have been a kinder fit. Except that Weasleys were always Gryffindors. Percy hadn't been self-aware enough to understand that he didn't have to follow Bill and Charlie.

He'd figured out later that he could chose a different path, but he'd still assumed that he had to follow someone. Paths required many feet crossing the same bits of earth while heading for the same destination.

Fred couldn't go back in time, not while he was anchoring George, but there was still time to rework the numbers so that Charlie could go back with Ginny instead. Bill would be more difficult, but adding in Luna and Hermione changed things enough to make it work.

Percy had the equations in his head. He just didn't know what he should do with them. He didn't want to stay in the present. He didn't want to lose Patty again.

He just wasn't sure that what he wanted mattered. He'd made too many mistakes by putting his own desires first.

"Charlie is too much like Ginny," Fred told Percy while the two of them were checking bags of white rocks for holes before making the sacks rigid enough for a feather light charm to be useful.

Percy went very still. "Where is that coming from?" He hadn't said anything out loud. Was his brother a legilmens?

"I know you better than the others do," Fred said. "You've changed-- we all have-- but you've never trusted yourself. You're just good at meeting expectations. It made pranking you a dream because you were fragile."

Percy sighed. He wanted to deny it, but he'd spent a lot of his life terrified that he wasn't good enough, that he would deviate from expectations in a way that would-- He'd never known what he was afraid of, not exactly.

Probably of cascading mistakes leading to a shattered world. He'd been there and done that now. He didn't want a repeat.

"Bill and Charlie aren't fragile," Percy said.

"No," Fred agreed. He straightened and ran dusty fingers through his hair as he looked at Percy. "But Bill's not vicious enough, and Charlie's terrible with--" Fred waved a hand to indicate something that Percy couldn't guess at. "You--" Fred pointed a finger at Percy. "You know your own flaws. You know how to survive and what it costs. You're cautious, and you won't ignore Hermione. Bill and Charlie barely know her, and they'll try to protect Ginny when they shouldn't."

Percy opened his mouth to argue but couldn't find words. Instead, he shook his head. "I'm good at staying alive," he pointed out after several seconds had passed.

"So are they." Fred's eyes met Percy's. "You're not a waste of space on this trip. We're not setting a trap for you or shuffling you out of the way. We're not sending you back only because Patty has to go." Fred's smile was thin but genuine. "I haven't told Bill or Charlie that you're worrying, but Ginny thinks you're not sure about her going." Fred paused for a moment as if considering. "I think Hermione just assumes that everyone's nervous. She takes it as a good sign because she thinks being afraid but going ahead anyway correlates with paying attention."

"So how does she deal with _you_?" Percy regretted the question as soon as it left his mouth.

Fred laughed softly. "Time, mostly. And I pay attention to whatever she tells me to pay attention to."

Percy hesitated. "Was she-- Did she help you and George plan? When he went back, I mean."

Fred shook his head. "Just me and him. Like always." He ran his fingers through his hair again. "We thought it only needed us. Like always."

Percy had never seen Fred look so tired, so defeated.

"He changed some things," Fred admitted. "I remember more than is... It's harder than we thought it would be. Don't tell Hermione, please. I remember her dying three different ways. We seeded some spells, saved her, saved Bill. Still, always, lost Ron and Fleur and..." Fred shook his head. "Hermione doesn't know. Luna... I'm pretty sure Luna guesses."

Percy supposed he shouldn't be surprised that Fred had lied. "Why tell me?"

"Hermione will figure it out, and you should have some warning."

Percy doubted that was the whole reason.

"Also... The mind link is-- I-- _we_ \-- think it's a twin thing. It might not be, though, and one of you should be warned."

"Mind link? You said--" But, Percy realized, Fred hadn't. Not even once. "You let us assume it was all him leaving you messages." Percy took a deep breath. "And it never made sense. You just kept us looking at other things."

Percy should have remembered that Fred and George were very good at distracting people from inconvenient truths. He sighed again. "Any other surprises?"

Fred shook his head then shrugged. "Only... If it's not just a twin thing, my mind will be linked to Patty's. I... You have no reason to trust me on this, but I won't abuse that connection. So, if she talks about 'Uncle Fred' when she's older, you'll know I'm trying to be a better uncle than I was a brother."

Percy had no idea what to say to that. The idea of any adult mentally linked to any baby was creepy as hell, but... "She can't stay here," he said. "We have to start with the next thing that might kill her and deal with the rest as we go."

Fred nodded. "Well, then. I'll try to remember everything and tell you the bits Hermione doesn't know."

Percy nodded back. He turned away to inspect another bag. "Did you have a plan for what to do if I... reacted badly?"

"Not a good one," Fred admitted. "Obliviate you and look for a chance to talk to Ginny. Might be nobody'd notice the spell. Bill's at the site, and you've been weird anyway. In and out of focus. Hermione thinks that you're-- She thinks part of you is worried that, if you don't pay close enough attention, Patty won't be there next time you look."

Percy almost choked on terror. He swallowed hard and turned back to look at his brother.

Fred looked entirely serious, but he had tells.

Percy cleared his throat. "You just wanted to see what would happen, what I'd do if you said that. You look like you just stuffed an experiment in the closet to hide it from Mum and are hoping it won't blow up and kill us all."

"I didn't _want_ to, Percy. I'd just rather-- If you're going to fall apart, it'd be better if we know. You'd still go, but we'd... If you might blow up, we'd have to take some precautions."

"And you'd obliviate me and go and talk to Ginny."

Fred shrugged and didn't deny it.

Percy wanted to be angry, but mostly, he felt tired. He knew there were things he could say, questions he could ask, that would cut Fred to the emotional bone. Part of him wanted to. Part of him remembered the twins pushing and pushing and pushing for a reaction and how it was easier if Percy just blew up at them early.

Percy sighed. "I'm not quite that fragile," he said. "Rusted and cracked and dented but not fragile."

For several seconds, Fred stared at Percy as if seeing a stranger.

Percy thought that at least half of that was performative. "If you thought you were going to have to obliviate me, you'd have started with the things that would break me." Percy wasn't entirely sure that his words were true, but he thought that Fred needed to believe that Percy thought they were.

Percy thought that Fred had wanted to see Percy's pleasure at being trusted.

Fred had wanted to feel like he still had one of the brothers he'd grown up with. Neither of the twins had ever been able to ask for kindness, not from Percy, and soon, Fred would only have Bill and Charlie.

Ginny wasn't the only one who felt a little lost trying to relate to their older brothers.

"I'd have been glad to see you," Percy said, "even if you hadn't brought Patty back to me. Not that I'm not grateful, just... We thought we'd lost you, too, and having you back means the world." He let his lips curve into a smile. "Possibly literally. Without you, Ginny and I might have made it back in time, but we'd be wandless and friendless and... Well."

Percy was only a little surprised when Fred hugged him.

____

Each of the adults checked the layout of the circle and the spiral before Bill sank the jagged white rocks into the soil. He left them visible but embedded them deeply enough that none would be accidentally displaced.

Then everyone checked the layout again. Once they were sure everything was right, Percy cast a charm to make the rocks glow. They were going need to be able to see the patterns in the dark because the travelers had to walk the same path if they were to arrive at the same time.

Patty complicated things because she couldn't trace the spiral under her own power. She also couldn't speak the words or join her will to the spell.

"Hermione will carry Patty," Luna said. "That's the best resonance for spinning all of our magic together."

Percy wanted to object because that wasn't what they'd planned, but he'd come to recognize the look on Luna's face that meant that she was right.

They could spend sixteen hours working out the arithmancy to confirm it, or they could rehearse a few times and actually get some sleep between now and 10:17 p.m. on the night of the new moon.

Percy would take the rehearsal time. The spellwork had some space for individual flourishes, required them even, but other parts needed to be exact in timing, intonation, and movement.

Percy set down the bag that held his supplies for Patty and all of Hermione's hidden Muggle potions. "Give me ten to get used to the pack," he said as Hermione came over to take Patty and the bag.

Percy had been right to think that Hermione's pack would be heavy, but it was lighter than he'd feared. He got the straps over his shoulders and adjusted them to fit.

"There're catches and straps around the front," Hermione told Percy. "So that it doesn't bounce too much or slip."

Percy nodded and started trying to find those by feel. He was relieved when Fred came over to help.

"Thank you for not arguing," Fred said quietly.

"Even if she's wrong about better," Percy replied, "I think we all know it's not worse. At least, not arithmantically." He stepped away from Fred and kept walking, trying to get a feel for how the added weight shifted his balance. He wasn't naturally athletic, and he wasn't used to carrying quite so much. "I'll be fine," he told Fred. "Go and make peace between Bill and Luna. He knows she's got a point."

Percy wasn't one hundred percent sure what Luna's reasoning was, but he also didn't think it mattered.

Bill normally had nerves of steel when it came to complicated magic, but he wasn't usually gambling for such high stakes. He'd made the original plan, and he was the oldest. He was probably thinking about how much Mum would disapprove of the risks.

Percy rather thought that Mum would have focused all of her fear about them into tearing into Fred for sharing a bed with two women at the same time. Especially for the part where he wasn't really pretending that he wasn't doing it. She might even tear into Hermione for the lack of discretion.

It would be so much easier to complain about bad judgment and loose morals than to look squarely at the fact that dying in the attempt to fix things-- even with Patty involved-- was better than the alternatives.

If Percy wasn't putting his faith in Fred and George, he'd probably be having screaming nerves himself. Percy considered the original plan.

If it had just been the four of them, he and Ginny would have been bickering for days already with a high likelihood of a massive row in the next three hours. 

Charlie would be taking long walks to get some of his worry out without ripping into Bill.

Bill would be sitting with the papers and the equations and trying to come up with ways to make it all _work_.

None of them would have remembered to eat anything at all. No, Charlie probably would have; he'd just have spotted something while he was out, eaten whatever it was, and then have forgotten to remind the rest of them to eat. Because he wasn't hungry any more.

Possibly Percy had an overly cynical view of his family.

Percy walked to the center of their diagram and experimented with spinning and bowing. The results left him glad that those movements were part of what could be safely varied. Walking the spiral out from the center was easier and harder. He was less in danger of tipping over, but he misjudged his pace more than once.

"Percy."

He turned to look at Ginny.

"I can take some of that."

He considered that. Part of him really wanted to take her up on it. "I don't think it would help," he said at last. "Three quarters of this would still change how I walk. Half of it would, too. I might as well practice with all of it."

She frowned at him. "It's not that. Well, not only that. You're going to ache by the time we actually start. All the practice in the world won't help if you get exhaustion tremors."

Percy had never even heard of exhaustion tremors before. "You're the athlete," he said. "What would you recommend?"

"Lightening the load," she said. She tilted her head, studying him. "Hermione always used to over-prepare," she said softly. "I can't think that's changed. There are things in there that we _might_ need but won't really."

Percy thought he preferred Hermione's approach. They might not have to camp without magic. They might not need to deal with a nesting dragon. They might never get to a point where notes about advances in charms and potions would help them put food on the table.

But not having considered those things and prepared would be arrogant.

"We have to rely a lot on luck," Ginny said. She sounded for all the world like she'd read his mind. "If we lose our magic on the trip, we're completely fucked anyway. We can't possibly carry everything or plan for everything. Canteens and tarps and matches aren't talismans against arriving during a winter storm."

"Ginny." Percy raised a warding hand. "I'll manage. I'll be careful about resting."

"I've carried more than this for longer than we're going to need to," Ginny pointed out. "My balance is better than yours."

"You could definitely carry more," Percy said, "even without me carrying less. I wouldn't mind that." He hoped for a flare of temper in response-- Ginny, he thought, was currently wound tighter than Bill-- but he wasn't sure he'd found the right words to provoke her.

Ron could certainly have done it; Percy might need more than one run at that target.

Teenage Percy had never realized how much he could miss Ron. Teenage Percy had been a git.

So had Ron, actually, but that made Percy miss him more rather than less. Ron should have had the chance to grow up.

Ginny gave Percy a tight smile. "I'm going flying," she said. "I can't take my broom back. It's too advanced, and I can't fake having built it myself."

"We'll make it right, Gin," he told her. He put as much promise into the words as he could.

"We'll make it differently wrong," she said. "Better, I hope, but still broken." She turned her back on him and walked away.

He stood still and watched her go.

____

They did the first part, the binding of the pairs, almost ten hours before they began the spell proper. 

Percy suggested it. "Starting early will mean that we can be sure the connections take. We'll have time to get used to how it feels and to readjust if we can't balance the tension."

Hermione looked thoughtful then nodded.

Luna responded with a brilliant smile.

"It would be something to do," Ginny said. "Waiting hurts."

Fred glanced at where Patty was lying. She was on her tummy with her arms flailing a bit as she tried to curl her fingers around a toy that Bill was moving slowly in front of her.

Fred looked at Percy and nodded understanding. Fred's connection to Patty was the most likely to need adjusting, and she was the least able to communicate exactly what felt wrong. "Which direction should we approach from?" Fred asked. "We can do the simple bits first for the foundation, or we can do the hard bits first and see where they need support."

"Foundation first," Bill said firmly.

"I recommend sitting down for the binding," Fred said. "George and I didn't, and we should have."

Charlie snorted a laugh. "Wish I'd seen that."

"I'm just as happy you didn't." Fred sounded as if he thought it was a joke.

Percy supposed it was. He sat on the floor and looked up at Charlie. "Us first, I think. Then Bill and Ginny. We have the shorter distance, and having them bracket us, after, makes sense."

Charlie shrugged then settled to the floor, facing Percy. He extended a hand, and Percy took it.

As always, Percy was surprised by the callouses and scars on Charlie's hands. Percy supposed that Charlie simply hadn't bothered getting every scrape and burn healed. Percy squeezed his brother's hand. "Brothers by blood," he said. "Brothers by choice."

Charlie squeezed back, stopping just short of joint creaking pressure. His smile was crooked. "Brothers by blood. Brothers by choice. Forward, backward, and every other direction."

Percy nodded. He could feel power starting to flow between them. He hadn't really expected it to be this easy, but he trusted Charlie, and, apparently, Charlie trusted him. "Forward, backward, and every other direction. Anchor me as I fly so that neither of us may be lost."

"I will watch your light as you fly. I will remember every breeze of your passage." Charlie's eyes met Percy's as their magic set hooks on each end of their promises.

Percy felt those hooks sink roots deep into his magic and then sprout tendrils that reminded him of devil's snare. He wondered which of them was most trapped.

They hadn't finished yet, they hadn't said everything required yet, but Percy was quite sure that it was too late to stop the process. He could tell that he could grab the connection and twist it so that Charlie bore more of the weight of it, so that Charlie would be his slave.

Charlie had the same opportunities for betrayal that Percy did. Each of them had to trust that the other wouldn't choose to do harm.

Percy was a little surprised to realize that Charlie was as afraid as Percy was. Percy squeezed his brother's hand in an effort to be reassuring. "For the family we share," Percy said. He focused hard on the idea of family as something larger shared blood. He thought he could keep that open, but he also knew that he couldn't promise to sacrifice for anything broader. He wasn't planning to save the world. That was too big, too impossible.

"For the family we share," Charlie agreed, and Percy could feel the parameters of the oath begin to form. "For hope and choices and children." Charlie's eyes flicked sideways at Patty.

Percy could hardly see through the mist of magic. He felt a moment of panic about Patty not really being there, but he nodded, accepting the mission. "Breath and body, mind and magic."

"Breath and body, mind and magic," Charlie echoed.

They both touched their clasped hands with their wands as they spoke the words to complete the spell. "Devotio aeternum."

When Percy regained consciousness, he was staring up at the roof of the tent. "I was right," he said. "We probably should have done it sooner."

"It wasn't that bad for me and George," Fred said. He sounded shaken. "I'm glad we started with you instead of--"

"We'll manage," Percy said because the alternative was accepting the certainty of losing Patty again. He'd take the risk over the certainty. They might still fail, but he'd know that he'd done everything that he could.

It wouldn't help, of course, but for now, trying was all he had.

Bill and Ginny used different words than Percy and Charlie had.

Percy heard more challenge and sharpness there than the warm trust he had felt with Charlie. Then he wondered what everyone else had heard underneath their words.

Percy and Charlie had promised help and rescue.

Bill and Ginny promised swords and fire and whatever else it took.

Percy had known that Ginny had that in her; he hadn't realized that Bill did. Percy was willing to kill. His baby sister _wanted_ to.

Bill and Ginny both swayed afterward, but neither of them passed out.

Percy wondered if that meant anything. He also wondered if Charlie had the same constant awareness of Percy as Percy had of Charlie. Percy thought that the connection between Fred in the present and George in the past probably wasn't 'just a twin thing.'

Everything ground to a halt after Bill and Ginny were done. Percy was absolutely certain that it was entirely terror about Patty. None of them wanted to hurt her, and the possibility of it was more real now than it had seemed before.

"I can keep her," Charlie said. "A baby can't be harder than a dragon."

Percy shook his head. "Waiting her to vanish would be Hell." He took a deep breath. "I don't see any way that she wouldn't, so we have to try." He shook his head. "For hope and choices and children. You said it, and I agreed."

"Bill, take the north." Luna's voice somehow managed to sound both aetherial and commanding. She waved her wand and murmured a spell.

Apart from Patty's blanket, all of the things on the floor of the tent tidied themselves away.

"We're going to need space," Luna said. "Charlie, west. Ginny, south. Percy, east. Leave room for the rest of us in the middle."

Hermione looked like she'd had an epiphany. She nodded. "The directions don't matter," she said, "just the order and the spacing. What?" she asked as Luna elbowed her. "They don't!"

"You're upstaging my pixie dust," Luna said. "That's rude."

Hermione's expression broke a little. She stared at Luna then stepped closer and put her head on Luna's shoulder. "Sorry." The word was muffled by the cloth of Luna robe.

Luna put her arms around Hermione's shoulders. "I forgive you."

Percy suspected that the apology and forgiveness had nothing at all to do with who should be standing-- or sitting-- where. He looked away.

Some things should be private, and Hermione and Fred and Luna were sacrificing something precious.

Percy wanted to tell them not to, but he was selfish enough to accept their help, and he knew that that something precious was as fragile and vulnerable as any love in the world the Dark Lord had made.

More vulnerable, even, because Hermione had a very large price on her head.

Percy doubted that would make the separation any easier for them. 

"You should be holding Patty when they start," Bill told Percy. "There's power in your trust for Hermione. It'll make everything easier now."

That sounded more emotional than arithmantical, but Percy had learned that, some times, things that couldn't be measured were still true. "I should change her first," Percy said. "Or, at least, check to see if she needs it."

Bill also wasn't looking at Hermione and Luna. "If you want to feed her, I don't think half an hour will make that much difference."

"Will it matter if she falls asleep?" Percy asked.

"She might have trouble sleeping after," Bill told him. "She's going to feel..." He shrugged as if there weren't words for it.

"And she won't understand why." Percy knew Bill was right. Percy sighed as he remembered nights of walking the floor so that Patty would stay asleep.

"It shouldn't change anything if she cries during the spellwork," Bill said. "It might even... It might help the rest of us remember why we're doing it."

Percy spent the better part of an hour with Patty. Giving her a sponge bath, putting a clean nappy and clean clothes on her, talking happy nonsense at her in pursuit of a smile, and feeding her.

Percy didn't hurry because Fred, Hermione, and Luna had retreated to their sleeping quarters. Percy was almost certain he'd heard a sob before the silencing charm went up.

They had time. Less and less as the seconds ticked by, but hours still remained.

Bill, Charlie, and Ginny started playing cards. Bill vetoed exploding snap before Percy had to. Charlie and Ginny both looked chastened by the reminder that the noise might frighten Patty.

Percy held his daughter while she slept. He hoped that she knew that he loved her and that she trusted him in spite of whatever had happened to her before she was rescued. He hoped that what they were about to do would make her safer and happier. He hoped she'd keep her magic.

Hermione would know what to do if Patty was a Squib. Patty wouldn't be trapped in the grey space between the Wizarding world and the Muggle world. Percy could live as a Muggle if he had to.

Something small and hard bounced off of Percy's head. He turned to see Charlie scowling at him. There was a bowl of nuts on the table where the card game was taking place. Percy suspected that he'd just had an almond thrown at him.

"Don't borrow trouble," Charlie told him. "You'll pay all your joy just to cover the interest."

Percy scowled back, but he couldn't put any real anger in it. "I suppose we have enough trouble already." He glanced at the curtain between the common area and where Fred, Hermione, and Luna were... doing whatever they were doing.

Percy was glad that silencing charms went both ways. "Remind them both, after, that I'll look after Hermione. Ginny with murder anyone who looks at her sideways, and I'll make sure they both eat enough." 

Bill nodded.

"We'll do it for her," Ginny said. "Not for them and not for Ron. Tell them that, too, because none of that is why she's family."

Percy didn't know Hermione half as well as Ginny did, so Fred and Ron were part of why he valued her. He nodded his agreement anyway because he knew that he was going to love Hermione for herself.

He wasn't going to fall in love with her, though. She deserved someone who wasn't a Weasley, and he didn't want either of them trapped by proximity and shared secrets.

And she might have enough in her bond with Luna that she didn't ever want more. That definitely wasn't a sibling bond that the two of them had.

Another half an hour passed before the trio emerged from their private space. At that point, Charlie insisted that everyone eat.

"Not a lot," he promised, "but we'll feel it later if we don't." Charlie pulled out dried fruit and lemonade and hard cheese. Then he spent the entire meal telling funny stories about his experiences with magical creatures. He didn't mention people lost or events to be rewritten. He didn't mention deadlines or dangers.

He did, however, tell them to leave the dishes for later.

Percy took his place ninety degrees from Bill and Ginny and across from Charlie. Once Hermione, Luna, and Fred had settled on the floor at the center of the circle, Percy bent and passed his still sleeping daughter to Hermione.

Percy recognized the expression on Hermione's face. It was the existential terror that every new parent felt on realizing that this was real, that the universe had put a life into their hands. No take-backs, no do-overs, no safety net.

Hermione had held Patty before, but she'd always had the option of passing the baby to someone else if things went wrong. It had always been temporary.

Hermione laid Patty across her lap and held out her hand to Luna.

Fred leaned in and persuaded Patty's hand to grasp his index finger. He pressed Patty's hand and his own against Hermione's thigh. "Breath and body, mind and magic," Fred said very quietly. He touched his wand to Patty's arm. "Devotio aeternum."

For a moment, Patty glowed.

Luna said, "Whither thou goest, I shall go also. By shared joy and shared sorrow. By promises spoken and unspoken."

Percy blinked because that wasn't the promise he'd expected.

Hermione said, "Where you dwell, so shall I also. As the world spins, as everything spins, and distances matter not. Though I leave, my hand will be in yours."

Luna squeezed Hermione's hand. "Distances matter not," she said. "I will absolutely kick your arse if you make yourself miserable missing us." Hermione opened her mouth, probably to protest, but Luna kept talking. "By promises spoken and unspoken," she said.

Hermione looked like she couldn't decide whether she ought to be angry or sour, but she answered firmly, "By promises spoken and unspoken."

Fred's wand joined Luna's and Hermione's as all three of them said, "Devotio aeternum."

Luna waved her wand in an imperious circle. She looked expectant.

Percy started speaking before he even understood what she wanted. He and Charlie, Bill and Ginny, all repeated, "Devotio aeternum."

"Excellent!" Luna said. "I suggest we all nap now. Except Percy because Patty's going to be awake for a while. Take her outside so she doesn't keep anyone else up."

Patty started to cry, and Percy wished desperately that he'd napped while she did.

He knew he'd regret not spending time with his brothers more than he'd ever regret being exhausted. That didn't mean he was happy about the exhaustion.

____

They moved to their spell circle before the sun went down. Ginny and Charlie flew with the packs while everyone else walked. They also peeled back the turf covering their glowing stone lines.

Percy, Ginny, and Hermione all put their wands into Hermione's bottomless bag. The three of them wouldn't be casting the spell, just directing it.

Patty continued to fuss the whole time. 

Fred carried her. "I won't get to later," he said, "and I want to remember. I think it might matter."

At 10:17, they walked the spiral to the inside of the spiral. They went in pairs, hand in hand, which Percy thought he ought to find embarrassing, but, really, no one who saw it was going to laugh.

When they got to the central circle, everyone exchanged hugs. Bill, as the oldest, pressed a kiss to the forehead of every other person present. Then Fred held Patty up and turned slowly so that she could-- in theory at least-- see everything and everyone around them.

The ancient book from which they'd taken the spell had said that the eldest must bless and the youngest witness. That was the main reason they hadn't put Patty to sleep.

Charlie had promised that no one but them would hear her crying. "By the time they're that close, they'll already be able to see the glow. And, anyway, I told Gina that there's a Weasley mourning ritual at the new moon. The Dark Lord might not approve, but letting us camp here for it isn't defiance as long as we all pretend it never happened."

Now, as Patty cried, Bill bowed over Ginny's hand. He led her to the center of the circle. He moved his wand in a tight spiral that started small and ended with a broad sweep from his shoulder. He pointed to the ground under Ginny's feet and said, "Iter tempus tortilis."

A new spiral appeared, and Ginny started walking. Somehow, her path didn't cross any of the places where other people were standing. Ginny exited the circle, taking careful steps along the exterior spiral.

The interior spiral vanished entirely.

Percy watched until Ginny started to flicker in and out. His stomach twisted as he understood that she was already moving through time.

Then Charlie was bowing to Percy and leading him to center.

Percy managed to smile as Charlie's wand inscribed the spiral. He turned slightly to look at Hermione. As the interior spiral appeared under his feet, as he started walking, he said, "My daughter in your arms, Hermione Granger. Your feet to bring her back to me."

Hermione nodded, accepting that duty.

Then Percy was outside the inner circle. All he could see was the glowing path ahead of him. One step at a time. It hurt, but he knew that, if he stopped, he'd die. Time would swallow him whole. 

He knew he'd already taken more than enough steps to reach the end of the spiral, but he could still see more path ahead. The air thickened around him so that each step took more effort than the last. He was sure he'd been walking for hours already.

He knew that Patty and Hermione were behind him. He could feel them moving. 

Ginny was somewhere ahead, but Percy thought she had left the path. She'd found the exit. An exit, anyway, and Percy needed to find the same exit.

If he did, his ties to Patty would pull Hermione to join them. If he didn't, Hermione would still follow him, and Ginny would be alone and wandless.

That was a flaw in their plan. Percy should have thought.

He could see the path fracture ahead of him. One of those fragments led to Ginny. He reached forward with his wand hand and thought that this would be much easier with a wand to point the way

There. The fourth flicker from the left, the blaze of Weasley red. Percy's feet took him there.

The chill wind, the smell of heather, the sun overhead, all came as a relief. He had arrived. Somewhere. Somewhen.

And Ginny was sprawled on ground in front of him. She was laughing hard enough to prompt tears.

Percy stumbled to his knees next to his sister. He took deep breaths and watched carefully for Hermione's arrival.

Hermione was carrying Patty. Hermione could not afford to fall.

Percy pulled off his pack and forced himself to his feet in time to catch Hermione and Patty as they emerged from nothingness.

Like Ginny, Hermione laughed. "My feet brought us through!" she told him.

He smiled at her as he held out his arms for his baby. "They did. We did." Once he had Patty, he added. "Try your bag. Please." The 'please' was more plea to the universe than request to Hermione.

Hermione sat next to Ginny. "I have a good feeling about it," she told him as she untied the drawstring and reached inside. Her arm disappeared to the elbow. When she pulled it out, she had three wands. She tossed one to Ginny and held out another to Percy.

"I have got to buy a proper wand," Hermione said. "This one is good enough, but it's like renting a cheap flat after living in a house I owned."

"It's 1982," Ginny announced. "I vote we start by kidnapping Harry. After that, I need to kidnap Riddle's diary. It's a horror but saner than any other fragment of the Dark Lord."

"Yes to the first," Hermione said, "but the second-- No. Really, really, no. We're not casually burgling Malfoy Manor."

Percy nodded because Hermione was usually more sensible than Ginny, but he wasn't really listening. Instead, he made soothing sounds in hopes that Patty would settle. He unwrapped her enough to check her diaper and was surprised to find it dry. "One of us should send a patronus to George."

He heard Hermione try.

"Not with this wand," Hermione said. "Ginny?"

Hermione's happiest memories must all be touched with bitterness now. With a wand that suited her better, it might not matter.

Percy suspected that she would not welcome his sympathy.

"Let Percy try first," Ginny said. "I think he's the one who's properly happy." Something in her voice made Percy feel a little guilty. It must have shown on his face because she added, "It's a good thing, Percy. One of us should be; it's the best start we could have."

Percy didn't even have to work at coming up with the right memory. It had to be-- would probably always be-- that moment in the Burrow when he'd realized that the bundle in Hermione's arms actually was Patty rather than some other baby.

"Expecto patronum!"


End file.
